Paul Verdell is a painter based in Detroit, Michigan. Originally from Long Beach, California, he moved to Ohio as a teen and received a BFA from Bowling Green State University in December of 2018. Verdell approaches drawing and painting through the chosen media of oil paints, oil pastels and crayons, adding loose and instinctive mark-making to his two-dimensional works. He experiments freely with gesture and application through a constant cycle of creation and modification, working mutually with his material to allow it to reveal its desired form. What results from this focus on process are luminous and wild expanses of pigment that highlight Verdell’s agility and proficiency with a color, a foundation upon which his practice thrives. Influencing the artist’s conceptual root is both internal discourse—an ongoing attempt to understand himself within a shifting and uncertain world through the act of painting—as well as his Black American heritage.

Born in Long Beach, CA in 1991
Lives and works in Detroit, MI